Framestore and McLaren’s animated collaboration Tooned will return to Sky Sports F1 this Sunday as the Belgian Grand Prix kicks off the second half of the F1 season. To celebrate, Framestore has produced a making of featuring the cartoon’s voice stars Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and comedian Alexander Armstrong.

The three episodes that have aired so far have proved popular with Formula 1 fans for the sheer number of F1 jokes and references packed into the three-minute running time. Episode one alone has had over 360,000 views on YouTube and the show’s return from the mid-season break has been eagerly anticipated.

Tooned’s success is particularly pleasing as, in addition to animating the episodes, Framestore has written, produced and directed them. As you can see from the making of, we had great fun in process: from McLaren boss Ron Dennis discussing the jokes with our directors, Chris Waitt and Henry Trotter (A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, Fur TV and J-Factory), to the drivers bursting out laughing as they read their lines during sound recording.

Episode four of Tooned will be broadcast during the build-up to the Belgian Grand on Sunday 2 September on Sky Sports F1 in the UK. There will be 12 episodes in total, with one shown before each grand prix this season.

Source: Framestore

Jennifer Wolfe is Director of News & Content at Animation World Network.